all one party that does social security and medicare. that i have to be willing to say, ok, if they want to do this, they'll have to give on something they don't like, maybe even higher taxes. and that's where the moment was there. they almost got this president to move on social security. almost got him to move on medicare reform. and they didn't take the deal. >> the reality at the end of the day, they are going to walk away with this without any spending restraint. we'll get a deal that will do nothing on deficits. and it's their own fault. >> i agree with that. >> let me bring up the gun issue. the president said he'll put his full weight behind his first year gun control legislation. but the question stands, does he have the stomach for how difficult this will be politically? i'm not sure. >> i'm not either. you know, there's a great line in "tom sawyer" where he says an evangelist that came through town that was so good that even huk finn stayed saved until

tuesday. the gun control thing is so tough. it is one of these cultural political issues where you have a ferociously well organized opposition, and a more diffuse common sense broader population. and i think that that is where the tension is. that also by the way is not -- the well organized interest plus the common sense diffusion is not just limited to guns. it's -- >> but, tom, talk more about guns. as you remember the assault weapons ban in 1994, it passes the house by four votes. and that was a democratic house. >> and by the way, it had a lot of loopholes of it. i brought a copy of a magazine that i get called "shotgun news." almost the entire -- this is for people who own guns and are gun collectors and some are gun nuts. not all of them, obviously. but the fact is, it's all about what we call assault weapons.

and there are lots of variations on it. this entire publication is dedicated to the idea that there are lots of new what they call platforms for ar 15s. and there are ways that you can change the barrel, you can change the stock, you can change the trigger mechanism. >> this is the gun used in newtown? >> yes. and the fact of the matter is everybody talks about it as if it's one weapon. it's not. it's a lot of variations on the same weapon. they always find a way around it. and there is no more in my judgment unified constituency in america than the passionate gun owners. they are out there. and they believe -- so many of them believe the government is going to knock down their door and take their guns away. and i say if we get to that, we have a lot bigger problem than guns. we're in anarchy. >> there is a 92-page newsletter against assault weapons. >> yeah. >> we'll come back to this. i want to get a break in here. i was in kentucky over christmas and saw a bumper sticker that said, i am the nra and i vote.

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♪(music playing) we're back with more from our roundtable. we'll get to some of the headlines that the president made on the wires here before we're through. but doris kearns goodwin, how does the president set priorities in a second term? he's got a pretty long list there and a pretty difficult environment in which to operate. >> the most important thing a president has to do knowing he has limited capital is to decide where do i put my ambitions and where do i hold back. i think the fact that he did not mention gun control makes him understand that unless he can argue public sentiment to overcome the enormous special interest, that's going to be a much harder one. immigration right at the top. and that's the one where he can mobilize that base. it's the base that elected him. if he were to get immigration, he starts on a successful

platform, and then maybe move to the other ones. >> there is incentive for republicans to cooperate on immigration. >> the sad thing for fiscal cliff is we'll be stuck in trench warfare for another couple of years. make sure you do it with a bush type comprehensive package. then you break the trench warfare. you get some from column a and column b, and then maybe you can do the things you want to do. the second big issue, the same thing for a coalition is tax reform. >> but the question tom raises when we're talking about guns, there's a larger approach. does he have more of an opportunity on gun control if there's a big mental health aspect to it, if there's more to it, tom? >> well, that's what i think. i think it has to be holistic. i'm not an assault weapon fan of any kind, but i know people who go out to the target ranges and feel strongly that they have a second amendment right to fire them off as many times as they want to with 30-round magazines

in them. so sportsmen, people who have weapons for hunting deer or big game or birds as i do and other people, have to become part of this debate as well, and say, look, there have got to be limits of some kind. i have even talked to people who are gun owners saying, why couldn't you have a club where they actually own the assault weapons, and if you want to shoot it for target practice, you have to go to the licensed club, get the gun, shoot it and check it back in. >> that's all the more reason why he has to educate the country. he has to get out of the white house more. he should take a train and go around the country and talk to people about all of these issues so you can mobilize public sentiment. as lincoln said, without it nothing can happen. and that's the goal of the second term. >> i think the gun question, though, is almost less they question of presidential leadership and cultural leadership from people like tom and like me. we are the only two gun owners here.

but if you're a moderate, if you're a quail hunter or dove hunter, you have to get into this and say, look, assault weapons are not what this is about. as president clinton said, he had never known anyone that needed an assault weapon to kill a deer. and this is a case where if people, if this is not an organic movement from the country, it's not going to work. it can't come from top down. >> i want to inject the larger political point. we have mid term elections coming up in two years. there's the trench warfare on the budget and entitlements which could take a long time, and gun control if he wants to do that this year as well. >> well, you have to pick and choose. you have to be careful. if you pick on the one hand it could be tempting to go guns, because it needs the most political capital. it's going to be the hardest slog. it's the most work. but if you do it and fail, you're not going to get anything else fail. ask george bush when he did social security first.

immigration will be relatively easy now. there will be some painful moments, but you have a republican party of which there is incentive to get it done. they had a big victory early. but the fact that we're going to be stuck in these budget impasses, and it's going to keep the economy dragging down, i think that's the biggestu -- w have already gone over the political cliff here, if you will, with what -- because the deal that happens, if it happens, is temporary. we're going to have the debt ceiling thing in six weeks which is just -- >> the president has good leads now on who carried out the attacks in benghazi. he also touts chuck hagel. he says failure to reach a fiscal deal would hurt the markets. and the president wants gun violence meures passed in we know why we're here. ♪ to connect our forces to what they need,

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thank you all for the discussion today and for all your contributions to the program this year. i really appreciate it. before we go, i wanted to point out that if you missed the interview with the president, you can watch a rebroadcast on nbc later today at 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern, and again tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. for highlights from the interview, be sure to follow me on twitter, @davidgregory, my handle. that's all for today.

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. he was a hollywood stunt man, but this was no hollywood stunt. >> this was a hit. >> shot four times and left dying on the floor. >> somebody definitely wanted him dead. >> will you be able to solve the mystery of who wanted him dead and why? you'll meet lots of possible suspects. >> oh, my gosh. >> including his ex-wife, an actress once married to movie monster joe peschi. but she had a strong alibi. >> do you know who shot him? >> i don't know. >> and that's only the start of these twists in this hollywood

mystery. >> this is one of those stranger than fiction kind of thing. surely no one would write a script like this. >> the most stunning thing of all is what didn't happen. >> my mom said, don't you [ bleep ] die. that hit harder than the bullets. my mom never swore. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." as they say in hollywood, the plot thickens. here's josh mankowicz. >> action. it ranks second only to money as the single most important word in hollywood. and here in l.a. where life and art are often the same thing, there is a real life drama that rivals any action movie with a plot that includes all the elements of classic film noir.

>> cut! >> a mystery featuring an assassin, a femme fatale, skpand an actor. let's start with joe peschi, with a name as famous as a cold-blooded killer. his ex-wife, a model and actress, appeared alongside peschi in the gangster film "casino." the supporting cast includes claudia's brother, manny, not an actor but an actual tough guy who did time in prison and who harbors a terrible secret in his past. and finally claudia's second husband, garrett warren, a hollywood stunt man and martial arts expert. a man very familiar with danger.

fade in, early evening in the quiet town of westlake village, california outside of l.a. stuntman garrett warren heard a knock on his door and a voice on the other side asking about his new silver volvo parked in the driveway. garrett answered. then comes our first plot twist. three shots into his body. one more into garrett's right eye. the daredevil's luck had run out. >> i called and his mother answered the phone. screami screaming, crying, just distraught. wally, wally, you're not going to believe what happened. what? garrett has been shot. >> wally crowder was a fellow stuntman and garrett's good friend. >> garrett was one of those men

that you could count on. you hear in life that you're very lucky if you have five friends or you can count a friend on one hand. garrett was that friend to me. >> wally had been in the business for more than 30 years. >> garrett warren was probably the finest fight man you could ask for. i had hired him on several shows, got to know him, watched his expertise. phenomenal athlete stuntman. >> you've probably seen garrett warren's work, you just didn't know it. here he is in "charlie's angels" doing a spin with lucy liu. but his friend wally says garrett's personality was not what you might expect. >> garrett was a very focused

individual. people think of stuntmen has daredevils, crazy people. that's the last person i want on my job. i want vet best at what they do. >> but toward the end of 1997, wally says that focus shifted the minute garrett warren met claudia harrow. >> beautiful, beautiful woman. we just wanted garrett to be happy. he had found somebody that he seemed like he genuinely loved and mwanted to start a life wit. >> there was something special about her. people who got to know her, she was just a beautiful soul. and i think men were attracted to that as much as to her beauty. >> claudia's good friend julie eresgot remembers when claudia and garrett first got together. >> she says to you, i met this guy. >> yes, and she was very excited. i was always a good fan of garrett. he was sweet, he was funny, and she just seemed so happy with him. i should say actually joe and i both were very supportive.

>> by joe she is referring to claudia's ex-husband, a character actor who became a star by playing mafia tough guys. joe peschi. >> it sounds like her marriage to joe peschi didn't end badly. >> not at all. they're like family. they stayed very close. >> claudia stayed close to joe peschi even after she started dating garrett. but when he met claudia, he was ready to settle down. >> we felt like this would be the gal that garrett would end up with. no more dating, no more running around. i'm going to end up with claudia. >> garrett and claudia were married less than a year after they met. >> in the beginning, i think it was a very good relationship. >> oh, my gosh. >> they soon had a beautiful daughter, kyla. the new couple enjoyed being parents. >> i love you guys. >> love you, too.

>> but happy scenes like this one did not last. claudia and garrett couldn't make it work. >> it was a series of events. it just wasn't the right marriage. >> once the relationship started going south, it went fast. less than two years after their wedding, claudia and garrett split up for good. >> divorce is never easy, but in the long run, it was two parents trying to figure out a way to live and both see their children. >> garrett went back to his old life as a stuntman, back to the set and the world of make-believe. so how did his life go from playing dead to bleeding out on the floor of his home? shot four times at close range. >> somebody definitely wanted him hurt or dead at that time. >> but who? detective mark gayman of the sheriff's department said investigators looked at every

angle, remembering first how the gunman asked garrett about his brand new volvo. they wondered if this could have been road rage, someone he played with on the l.a. freeways. >> he is a stuntman. >> yes. >> i wonder if he doesn't always use turn signals when he changes lanes. >> could be. >> or was it business? >> could be a business partner, or someone he might have dated, an ex-girlfriend or ex-businessman? >> this led to the bright lights of the movie business all the way to the parts of l.a. that the tourists never see. >> so who did want garrett warren dead? there seemed to be an entire cast of suspects. detectives especially wanted to talk to garrett's ex-wife claudia. when we return, getting ready to say goodbye to a friend.

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fade in. northridge hospital, daytime. wally crowder rushed to the b bedside of his buddy garrett warren, a movie stuntman who had been shot with real live bullets. >> i ran into garrett's mom and realized, i'm going to lose my friend. he's not going to make it.

>> garrett was in critical condition. >> all these things run through your head, the time you spent together, the things that maybe you should have said that you didn't. it was rough. >> shot three times in the body and once through the eye all at close range. hard to imagine anyone surviving it. ready for our second twist? it's one that neither garrett's family nor the gunman saw coming. this is garrett warren today. >> thank god i'm still here. i mean, i was very fortunate. i was very lucky, very blessed. >> to the surprise of the doctors treating him, garrett warren pulled through, and he lived to tell the story of the night he was almost murdered. a flashback as vivid now as it was then. here's bullet 1. >> to be honest with you, when a

bullet hits you, you don't really know that it hits you. it's not like you see in the movies. as i slipped to the side and it hit me center mass, it went right in front of my chest, passed by my heart and is now stuck in my rib cage right here and is still there. >> then bullet 2. >> so i looked down, i looked back up and here came another one. and i slipped my head to the side. when that happened, the bullet hit me around the neck and went straight up my back. >> bullet number 3. >> then i realized, okay, this is for real. and i went to close the door and he shot center mass at me. when he did, i was turned sideways and he hit me in the hip and it went straight out my back. that one hurt. it hit my bone. >> if that sounds gruesome, hang on for what's next. >> i fell back behind my door to the ground. then he walked in and put the gun to my head. when the gun was placed to my head, when i saw him squeeze the trigger, i flinched like this, like a fighter would. when i did this, the bullet went

through my eye, came straight out my eye, went through my ear and got stuck in the wall behind my head. >> those are pretty good reflexes. >> yeah. if it was a matrix, it wasn't good. that's like keanu going back and the bullet still hitting him. >> somehow the bullet that went through garrett's head missed his brain. >> you know how they tell you your life passes before your eyes? it doesn't pass before your eyes. you run through it. you think about everything that happened in your life and you wonder, did i do anything wrong or did i not make up for it? am i ready to die? >> at the time of the shooting, garrett's mother was at his home helping with baby kyla. garrett's mother ran to see what was happening and the gunman took two shots at her, but he missed. and then out of bullets, he fled. >> i looked at her and i said, i love you, mom. i'll see you on the other side. my mom said to me, don't you [ bleep ] die.

i was shocked. that hit me harder than the bullets. my mom never swore. here she was, she shook me and said, don't you [ bleep ] die. you've been a fighter all your life. fight one more time for me. and i looked at her and said, all right. you got it. i'm not going to go. i'll stay. >> as garrett ran through his life, he looked back on his failed marriage to claudia harrow. >> it was true love. it was the things that poetry was written about, the things movies are made of. >> hi, daddy. >> that brief marriage produced their daughter, kyla skpchlt ev --. and even though the marriage didn't last, the bond they felt through kyla surely did. >> that was one of the most amazing things of my life and probably the greatest thing i can leave of my legacy, i guess. >> but when the marriage broke up, there was a nasty fight over who would get custody of kyla.

in the midst of it, claudia made perhaps the worst accusation you could make. she claimed garrett had sexually molested their daughter. after a thorough investigation, a family court judge ruled that there was no evidence of abuse. but it was shortly after that that the gunman showed up at garrett's home. so naturally detectives brought in claudia for questioning. >> it was just another road that we went down, you know, during the investigation. you know, it's like, hey, could it be an ex? >> claudia was cooperative shechcooperative. she didn't appear to have any strong ties to the shooting and she had a strong alibi for that evening. she even expressed concern for garrett. investigators were satisfied she wasn't involved. so they kept talking to garrett, who had gotten a glimpse of the man who shot him. >> it was very difficult to decipher what his ethnicity was because i was looking through a little peephole in my door. >> not someone you knew? >> no. never met him before. >> as garrett recovered in his room, the sheriff's department

tried to piece together some theories. >> i'm guessing detectives asked garrett if he was carrying on with somebody else's wife or girlfriend? >> yes. everything was being looked at in his life, his lifestyle, his business. >> an exciting high-energy lifestyle from the gym he owned to the film circles he ran in. garrett warren had no shortage of adventures. but investigators received a tip suggesting that garrett also had enemies. >> the sheriff's station received ana anonymous letter just kind of advising there was some people involved at the gym that garrett was having some kind of relationship with, people that might be of interest to detectives that they might want to question these people. >> detectives checked out every name that came up. they followed up on every lead. but they hit a dead end at every turn. >> depressing? >> very depressing. sometimes you just need that one break. you need a phone call that somebody wants to really give up some information, give us

another road to go down, give us another adventure to try. >> it took almost two years before that break arrived. that's when police in another county searching a car for drugs instead found a note and a photo that would make clear just what kind of danger garrett warren was facing. coming up, was garrett warren's would-be killer about to try forte 2? >> i'm scared to death someone

close-up. garrett warren. the stuntman was gunned down in his own home but lived to tell the tale. he knew his would-be killer was still on the loose, and garrett was looking over his shoulder. >> i have a bulletproof vest on.

i've invested whatever money i possibly can in all sorts of security around my house. i'm scared to death somebody is going to come back and finish it. >> did you think there would ever be an arrest? >> no. i actually gave up on it and said, you know what? chalk it up to experience, move on with your life and that's it. >> and you did move on with your life? >> i did. >> a year after his shooting, garrett still faced multiple surgeries and painful rehab. he was back at work as a personal trainer at the gym he owned. and that's where he met lisa. >> she was sauls a client of mine that i was a personal trainer to. so while we were first training, she said, you know, i really like you. i'd like to date you. and i said, well, i have a rule i don't date clients. >> so isa quit the gym. >> she came back and said, i'm not in the gym anymore, i'm not your client, so let's date. >> they married in december 2002, two years after the shooting. maybe the happiness brought

along by garrett's second wife made it easier to get along with his first, claudia. the anger that had marked their divorce had faded. >> we were back to our visitation schedule again, back to shared custody and we're on speaking terms and we were actually friendly. >> it was about 18 months after garrett was shot when detectives got that lucky break. in an unrelated case, san bernardino police served a search warrant on a car belonging to a man named miguel kuros. they were looking for drugs but they found something else under the spare tire in kuros' trunk. it was a photograph of garrett warren with a circle drawn on it. and garrett's home address, which very few people knew. so detectives showed garrett a six-pack, a photo lineup that included a photo of miguel kuros. >> i'm looking at the photos and i say, by all means, that's the

guy i recognize. >> that's the guy that shot you. >> yep. >> no doubt in your mind? >> no doubt in my mind. >> in 2003, detectives arrested miguel kuros for attempted murder. he was neither a gang banger nor a hired gun. instead he owned a pizza parlor. sheriff's detective mark gayman. >> did it seem like he was your middle class, very nice guy that everybody in the community loved? >> and yet garrett was identifying him as the shooter. >> yes. >> other than garrett's i.d. of kuros, there was nothing to suggest they had ever met. >> had they ever done any business deal before? >> no. >> kuros connected in any way to the gym? >> no. >> any chance that he was driving a car near garrett that night? >> no. none whatsoever. >> so what the connection was or why mr. kuros would kill him not clear? >> no, there was no direct connection whatsoever. >> and as detectives soon

learned, proving an attempted murder charge against miguel kuros wouldn't be easy. multiple witnesses said they saw and spoke to kuros at his pizza parlor on the night of the shooting. >> these witnesses weren't really beholden to mr. kuros in any way. they weren't members of his family, they were just customers. >> yes, they were frequent customers at his establishment. he had receipts, so it was pretty good alibis. >> at kuros' preliminary hearing, evidence pointed both ways. witnesses put kuros nearly 80 miles away from the scene of the crime on the night it happened. but then why did kuros have garrett's picture hidden away in his car? how and why would garrett finger kuros as the shooter? an investigator was brought in from the major crimes unit and

he knew he had work to do. >> you have a guy brought in for drug charges. >> yeah. >> he has a map in his car of a guy that was nearly a murder victim and a photo of the guy. >> right. >> and the guy picks him out. >> so you would think what's the question, right? >> are there people on death row for more than that? >> sometimes there's more to the story than meets the eye, which is the case here. >> when we come back, investigators discover a picture of garrett warren and the man he accused of shooting him. >> this is one of those stranger than fiction kind of things. certainly nobody would write a script like this. >> as "the plot thickens." [ dylan ] this is one way to keep your underwear clean.

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fade in. los angeles county, california. garrett warren was gunned down, shot four times in his own home but somehow survived. it fit his character, really. a hollywood stuntman, martial artist and former fighter. not only did he survive, but he was able to identify his shooter, a man who had been caught with what looked like a hit note in his car. >> and they tell you his name is miguel kuros. >> yes. >> did that name mean anything to you? >> not at the time at all. >> it sounded at first like a strong case. but the more law enforcement and prosecutor hun chun investigated, it seemed like a lost cause. >> so the most you've done is help prove your defendant's alibi. >> right. and hopefully help the alibi that he didn't do this. >> it put miguel kuros about 80

miles away from the night of the shooting. then, like a scene from "columbo" came the latest twist, something prosecutors saw during a court hearing. >> first of all, miguel kuros is left-handed. the shooter was described by the victim and his mother as right-handed. that's a little odd. >> odd because what left-handed person would try to commit murder with a gun in his right hand? >> it sounds like out of a movie. >> it's out of a movie, right. a scriptwriter might do something like that, but in real life it didn't make any sense. >> but then prosecutor chun saw this photo taken at a party, a barbecue. >> in this photo you have garrett warren, and he is facing miguel kuros and they are kneeling down. their children are in front of them. we can tell from the scar on garrett warren's face under his left ear that this is post shooting.

we can tell from the ages of those children as well as the lakers championship t-shirt that mr. kuros is wearing that this is very shortly after the shooting. >> the two men were both guests at the same party after the shooting but before garrett made his eyewitness i.d. of kuros. >> so you think that this is where garrett knew miguel kuros from? >> right. >> you think that's why he identified him as the shooter, because he remembered him from this party? >> right. classic transference. >> the photo explained the i.d. >> for some reason when i saw him in the photo lineup, it clicked. i thought, that must be him. i recognize him. and obviously it wasn't him. >> so garrett was wrong in picking kuros as the man who shot him. and that left prosecutors with two questions. who did shoot garrett? and since he had garrett's photo and address in his trunk, could kuros still somehow be involved?

prosecutor hun chun began to rethink the case. >> the defense attorneys agreed that we could talk to mr. kuros, and they let us talk to him. the detectives and i keep coming back to this hit note, to where it's found. he doesn't know garrett warren. their interaction was very brief at that barbecue. >> detectives kept after kuros. they knew that whoever ordered the hit really wanted garrett warren dead. because here's one more twist. the postmark on the note is from after the shooting. meaning that it's not so much a hit note as a note explaining to someone how to go back and finish the job. >> it's a rehit, if you want to call it that. >> that finish the job note, says chun, started to unravel the mystery. >> that was really kind of what broke the case open. that was, quite frankly, the lifeline we had on this case. >> the one unavoidable piece of evidence that finally cracked miguel kuros.

>> we go back round and round about this, and finally he admits that he was one of the middle men. >> miguel kuros admitted that while he wasn't the shooter, he was in on the plot and that he was caught by his own carelessness. >> he explained that that hit note had been sent directly to him, that he had put it under the spare tire in the trunk of his car and literally, he said, he had forgotten about it. >> so the reason you ended up finding that hit note under the spare tire in the trunk of mr. kuros' car was that he put it there for safekeeping and then forgot it? >> this is one of those stranger than fiction kind of things. certainly nobody would write a script like this because they would have to look at any self-respecting director or producer would have the look you're having and think, come on, that's ridiculous. but people forget things. >> disorganized crime. >> yeah. >> luckily for prosecutors, miguel kuros had not sworn a blood oath to never rat on his

friends. quite the opposite. he rolled over like lassie and cut a deal. he agreed to wear a wire and help collect evidence on his co-conspirators. and so, as they say around here, the plot thickens. coming up, the world's worst hit man. >> i apologize, i'm not a good shot. >> as the plot thickens. [ thunder crashes ] [ male announcer ] if you think all batteries are the same... consider this: when the unexpected happens, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites: duracell. one reason: duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. so, whether it's 10 years' of life's sunny days... or... the occasional stormy one... trust goes a long way. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere.

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fade in. los angeles county, nighttime. a police informant wears a wire as he talks to a partner in crime. >> i don't got to work on you, you don't got to work on me. >> the informant, miguel kuros. he's the pizza parlor owner turned small-time drug dealer and the man found a hit note in his car targeting garrett warren. now he was collaborating with investigators. detectives already knew kuros wasn't the shooter. he told them the man who actually pulled the trigger was an old friend of his named hernand hernandez. as part of a deal with prosecutors, kuros wore a body wire and approached